If you follow me on twitter then this should not be news to you, the Mobile Minesweeper game that I’ve been working on (and off) forever has finally made it to marketplace and is available for download. There were a few surprises for me in store during the entire process. First, the amount of time it took for the app to be approved, one attempt and one working day! And second, the number of downloads! The app has been downloaded over 10,000 times since I made it available on the marketplace 10 days ago, even though the app is free I never expected so many downloads and it came as a pleasant shock. In this post I’ll share some resources that helped me to get started with marketplace and prepare for the entire process. And also some statistics related to my app.
Where do I begin?
To submit apps, you need to register for the marketplace and get a developer account. Go to http://developer.windowsphone.com and click on “Register for the marketplace”. Using this developer account you will also be able to submit apps for Windows Phone 7 when the marketplace opens for submissions early October. Here is a nice walk through the registration process,
Windows Marketplace for Mobile Developer Registration Walk Through
There are a few minor differences between the slides shown above and the present process, but it’s easy to figure out. So far, the marketplace experience for me has been really smooth. Apart from the initial hiccup during registration where my credit card wouldn’t work, app submission and an update have gone through without any problems.
Submitting apps to marketplace
Your application must meet all the application submission requirements and pass several test cases (like 2 hours of hopper test) to be certified. The Windows Mobile 6.5 Application Certification Requirements are available here (pdf) for download, and I suggest going through this document at least once. Here is a walk through the application submission process,
Windows Marketplace for Mobile Application Submission Walk Through
Another great resource is Joel’s article on marketplace, a must read;
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/windows/WiMoMarketPlc.aspx
App Statistics
From the start, I designed the app to support 3 resolutions 240×320, 240×400 and 480×800. I think that these are probably the most popular resolutions for windows mobile devices. The only other hardware requirement is that the device should have a touch screen. I had submitted the app for the US catalogue first, and after it passed certification I submitted the same for other English markets which include Australia, Canada, UK, India, and Singapore. Here are a few numbers,
EN-US Catalogue – available for 10 days
AU, CA, UK, IN and SG Catalogue –available for 8 days
Clearly, US is by far the biggest market, no surprise really. If you happen to try out the app, do let me know what you think. Any suggestions or feedbacks are welcome. Goodbye. Until next time.
The official and the final bits of windows phone 7 developer tools are now available, go download them from here. The installer bundles everything you need to develop for windows phone 7 in a nice little package that includes,